Sheil Kapadia

Philly.com

Catching up on some online reading this morning and stumbled upon a troubling story involving ex-Eagles running back Ryan Moats.

Moats, 26, joined the Houston Texans last season. He spent a couple of seasons with the Birds after being selected in the third round of the 2005 draft.

Per The Dallas-Morning News and WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, Moats was hassled by a police officer in Texas as he rushed to the hospital to see his mother in-law, 45-year-old Jonetta Collinsworth, who was dying of breast cancer.

According to The Dallas-Morning News, Moats ran a red light with his hazard lights on a little after midnight on March 17. Moats said the only nearby driver waved him to go ahead.

Police officer Robert Powell followed Moats, who was driving with his wife, Collinsworth's father and her great aunt, to Plano Hospital.

Once they arrived, Moats' wife got out of the car.

"Get in there!" Powell yelled, per the reports. "Let me see your hands!"

"My mom is dying," she explained, ignoring his command and running into the hospital.

Moats, who stayed behind with Collinsworth's father, went back-and-forth with the officer.

"Just give me a ticket or whatever," he said.

"Shut your mouth," Powell told him. "You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."

According to the reports, the hospital twice sent nurses outside to ask the officer to let Moats go, but he would not listen.

"If you want to keep this going, I'll just put you in handcuffs," Powell said, "and I'll take you to jail for running a red light."

The entire incident, which lasted either 13 or 20 minutes -- depending on the report -- was captured on video.

An excerpt from the Morning-News article:

Powell made several more points, including that the SUV was illegally parked. Moats replied "Yes sir" to each.

"Understand what I can do," Powell concluded. "I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult."

"I understand," Moats responded. "I hope you'll be a great person and not do that."

By the time Powell finally issued a ticket to Moats and he got into the hospital, it was too late. His mother in-law had already died.

"I went up after she passed and held her hand, but she was already gone," Moats told WFAA-TV.

"For him to not even be sympathetic at all, and basically we're dogs or something and we don't matter, it basically shocked me," he added later.

Dallas police have launched an investigation, dropped the ticket and apologized, according to the reports.

This is just a brief summary of the incident. There are plenty more details.

UPDATE: As some of you pointed out, the video is now posted on WFAA's Web site. Click here to watch it. It provides a clearer perspective than simply reading the quotes. If the clip makes its way to YouTube, please e-mail me and I'll embed it here.

UPDATE II: The videos have been posted on YouTube. They are in two parts. Below is the first part. I'll post the second part in a separate post. And I have to say the situation is even more disturbing when watching the whole thing unfold. Thanks to reader Usman for passing along the link.